The National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) requires the registration with the federal government of machineguns, rifles and shotguns having an overall length less than 26 inches, rifles with a barrel shorter than 16 inches, and shotguns with a barrel length less than 18 inches. An example of a prior art short barreled rifle is shown in FIG. 1. Short barreled rifles are appealing for interior home defense and other close quarters battle applications where a longer barrel could be difficult to maneuver or easily snagged. The NFA definition of a rifle includes a “rifled barrel,” and the NFA definition of a shotgun includes a “smooth bore.” Similarly, many state “assault weapon” regulations define an assault weapon as having either a smoothbore or rifled barrel. Thus, an opportunity exists to create a firearm that does meet the legal definition of a rifle or a shotgun, making it not subject to these federal or state regulations.
An example of a firearm technology that is not classified as a pistol, rifle, or shotgun by the NFA is a firearm having a barrel with straight cut lands and grooves. In the 1870s, Husqvarna Vapensfabrik of Sweden made shotguns with this feature. Verney-Carron SA of makes shotgun barrels with straight cut lands and grooves sold under the Hastings brand name. Briley of Houston, Tex. makes straight cut choke tubes. Roughly five hundred years ago, muzzle loading barrel manufacturers originally made straight cut lands and grooves with the intent of depositing carbon in the bore to allow for more shots before needing to clean. This eventually led to the rifle with spiral cut barrels. Soon after, the straight cut barrels were abandoned in favor of the other technology. The only reason Swedish shotguns had this design was so they could be used to hunt in the King's forest (who declared that smooth bore weapons could not be used.) The reason why Hastings and Briley use straight cut land and groove shotgun components is to keep the wads from spinning and therefore keeping the shot column moving forward with less dispersion from angular momentum upon exiting the muzzle. Except for this specialized usage, barrels with straight cut lands and grooves have been viewed as an obsolete firearms technology because of the increased projectile velocity and accuracy resulting from rifles. Furthermore, a barrel with straight cut lands and grooves has never been used with a modern breech-loading, metallic cartridge.
Therefore, a need exists for a new and improved firearm barrel with straight cut lands and grooves that enables the user to have a short-barreled firearm with a stock that is not subject to the National Firearms Act. In this regard, the various embodiments of the present invention substantially fulfill at least some of these needs. In this respect, the firearm barrel according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in doing so provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of providing a short-barreled firearm with a stock that is not subject to the National Firearms Act.